The explosive growth in the demand for portable, battery-operated electronics for communications, computing, and other consumer or mobile applications demands analog to digital converters (ADCs) for such portable devices that feature low power dissipation, low cost, and high reliability. The process of converting an analog signal to a digital signal often limits the speed and resolution of the overall system. As a result development efforts often focus on the need for improved ADCs that can achieve both high speed and high resolution.
Sigma Delta (ΣΔ) ADCs are well-suited and used in instrumentation, voice and audio applications. ΣΔ ADCs feature both low frequency and high resolution. The high resolution of ΣΔ architecture is obtained through trading off the speed of modern integrated circuit technology for high accuracy. As integrated circuit (IC) technology continues to be scaled down, this technology provides ever increasing operation speeds thus allowing ΣΔ ADCs to operate at higher and higher frequencies.
The large need for wireless and Internet applications are to a great degree driving the need for improved ΣΔ ADCs. ADC converters provide an irreplaceable link between analog transducers and digital signal processing systems. ADCs are the key component used to translate an analog signal to a digital representation. Thus, ADCs facilitate the processing of data in a digital environment. Further IC technologies have made possible the ability to perform many signal processing functions in the digital domain rather than the analog domain. This ability places an even greater importance on ADCs that can be integrated within IC fabrication technologies to produce optimized digital circuits and systems.